In the fold

Ned's Brompton is indispensable to his Tour de France

Another Tour de France has come to an end. Never mind the yellow jersey, the green jersey, the sprints. Never mind the tussle for polka dots. For us, on the ITV crew, it's always been about the ride.

We travel, as many of you may be aware, each with a Brompton in the back of the car. Though they are tremendously economical, in terms of the space they require (that's kind of the point), by the time you have four of them folded up and racked side by side in the boot of a Ford Galaxy, there's not a huge amount of room for the luggage we all have to lug around France with us; most of which we never actually unpack. But, after twenty Tours, I've still not figured out that I don't need five pairs of trousers and a large nineteenth-century novel about the loneliness of marriage in the French bourgeoisie.